Born in Gaza; Palestinian lawyer; L.L.B. graduate from Alexandria
University, Egypt, in 1971; member of various Palestinian councils
and associations; former elected head of Gaza Bar Association (1989-94);
member of the Palestinian negotiating team to the peace conference;
PA Minister of Justice.

Born
in Ramallah; journalist and editor; BA Economics from the American
University in Beirut, 1956; member of the General Union of Palestinian
Students (GUPS) in 1957 arrested by the Jordanians and detained
for 8 years at Al-Jaffar prison; returned to the West Bank in 1974
via family reunification; chief editor of Al-Fajr newspaper, 1975-77;
founder and head of the Palestinian Communist Party (now: Palestine
People's Party) in the OPT on February 10, 1982; put under house
arrest by the Israelis in the early 1980s; chief editor of At-Taliah
weekly newspaper in Jerusalem.

Born
in Jerusalem; M.A. graduate from San Francisco State University
in 1979; Ph.D. Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies, Bradford University,
England, 1983; lecturer of Political Science at An-Najah University;
member of the Palestinian negotiating team to the peace conference;
PA Minister of Local Government and Municipal Affairs.

Born in 1940 in Baghdad; studied in Cairo, Baghdad, Damascus;
founding member of the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS)
in 1959; worked for the PLO after its initial establishment in Jerusalem
as deputy manager of the Public Organisation Dept. (1964-65); received
military training at a Syrian officer's academy and joined the Palestinian
Liberation Army in 1967; graduate from Damascus Military College
1967; founder and chairman of the Arab Studies Society, since 1979;
in the 1980s placed repeatedly under house and city arrest; several
times imprisoned; member of the Supreme Muslim Council, Jerusalem,
since 1982; Palestinian spokesperson; head of the Jerusalem National
Council/Palestine; head of Palestinian delegation to the Middle
East Peace Conference; head of Fatah-faction in the West Bank; Arafat's
chief representative in the OPT; active in developing and promoting
Israeli-Palestinian dialogue; Palestinian national movement's local
mediator for peace.

Born in Hebron; studied at al-Azhar University in Cairo; worked
as educator in Jaffa, Lydda, and Hebron, and in religious courts
in Jaffa, Kydda and Safed; appointed Deputy Mufti of Jerusalem by
Sheikh Jarallah after the British Mandate; chief magistrate for
Jordan and Mufti of the Jordanian army; worked in education in Saudi
Arabia and Qatar; counselor in the Department of Education, Jerusalem,
Hebron, Ramallah and El-Bireh until he retired (1975); appointed
Mufti of Jerusalem by Jordan (in 1993) until his death.

Educator; Imam of Ramallah mosque; placed repeatedly under house
arrest and several times imprisoned; member of the Higher Islamic
Council in Jerusalem.

MIKHAIL
ASHRAWI, HANAN (1946-)

Palestinian politician; born in 1946 in Ramallah; member of
the General Union of Palestinian Women (GUPW), 1967-72; member of
the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) in Beirut, 1967-70;
working at the Palestinian Information Office, Beirut, 1968-70;
graduate from American University of Beirut (M.A., English literature,
1970); Professor of English Literature at Birzeit University since
1974; founding member and director of the Legal Aid Committee since
1974; Ph.D., English Literature, at University of Virginia, USA,
1981; Dean of Arts at Birzeit University 1986-90; member of the
Union of Palestinian Writers; former member of Palestinian steering
committee in the peace process and Palestinian delegation spokesperson
for the negotiations at the Madrid and Washington peace talks; presented
the Palestinian case in a moderate pragmatic way; contributed to
development of Israeli-Palestinian dialogue; founder and head (1993-1995)
of the Independent Palestinian Citizen's Rights Commission.

Engineer, member of Higher Islamic Council in Jerusalem, head
of Board of Trustees of Al-Quds University, member of various Palestinian
Organisations.

NUSSEIBEH,
SARI (1949-)

Academic; political analyst
and columnist; born in 1949 in Jerusalem; son of Anwar
Nusseibeh, a former Palestinian-Jordanian diplomat; graduate
from Oxford University (politics, philosophy, economics, 1977) and
Harvard University (PhD in philosophy, 1978); Professor of philosophy
at Birzeit University, 1978-90; Director of Al-Quds University since
1995.

Born in Jerusalem, studied in France and Belgium, MA from the
Institute of National Politics in Paris, visiting scholar at Harvard
University 1985-87. PLO representative in the Netherlands 87-90;
PLO representative in London 90-95.

Born in Safed, Galilee; leader of the PLO Planning Centre in
Beirut; sought a dialogue with Israelis on the democratic state
idea he was championing in the late sixties; chairman of the Political
Committee of the PNC; coordinator of the Palestinian peace talks
negotiating team; Cairo businessman and Senior Advisor to Arafat;
PA Minister of Planning and International Cooperation.

Born in Nablus; lawyer; L.L.B. from Beirut University, 1971;
member of the Executive Committee of the Council for Higher Education;
in 1986, representaive of the Lawyers Union in Nablus; head of the
Lawyer Bar Association in the West Bank since 1990; appointed by
the PA to head the Nablus Municipality Council in October 1994.

Palestinian religious leader; Muslim
brother and preacher; born in 1937 in Ashqelon; refugee in Gaza
since 1948; worked as teacher, preacher and community worker;
completely paralyzed following an accident in his youth; founder
of the Islamic Centre in Gaza in 1973 which soon controlled all
religious institutions; creator, spiritual leader and key figure
of HAMAS, the Islamic Resistance Movement in the OPT; detained
since May 1989; believes that Palestine belongs to Islam and advocates
an Islamic state in all of Palestine.